Girl's 10-week hiccup ordeal baffles doctors

Emily Marsh, 13, started hiccupping on her way to a maths lesson in January
and has not stopped since.

11:57AM BST 04 Apr 2013

The teenager from Wallington in Surrey hiccups every two seconds, including when she is asleep, and has had to take afternoons off school to rest because she is so exhausted.

She has undergone a series of tests, including an ultrasound scan, chest X-ray, endoscopy and MRI scan, but doctors have so far been unable to cure her condition.

The schoolgirl has also tried osteopathy and hypnosis, as well as a variety of old wives' tale remedies – all to no avail.

"I have tried everything – even the spoonful of vinegar. That was horrible – I refused to do it again," she said.

"I've tried drinking backwards, holding my breath and people at school have been trying to scare me a lot."

Other cases of people to have had chronic hiccuping include an American man, Charles Osborne, who is in the Guinness Book of World Records after having hiccups for 68 years from 1922 to 1990 – when they mysteriously stopped.